The present invention relates to a corner fitting for freight containers, consisting of a parallelepipedal box having at least three walls defining the three outer faces of the fitting and extending perpendicularly to each other, at least one of these walls having an opening for inserting coupling or hoisting means.
The international standard ISO 1161 defines a corner fitting of this type for large containers having outer dimensions between 10 and 40 feet (approximately 3 to 12 m) of length, 8 feet (approximately 2.40 m) of width, and 81/2 feet (approximately 2.60 m) of height. In accordance with these container dimensions and the loads exerted on such containers, the known, standardized corner fittings are formed as parallelepipedal box-shaped structural elements having dimensions of about 170 mm.times.160 mm.times.120 mm and are correspondingly heavy.
For smaller or medium-sized containers which are of lighter weight in view of the smaller loads to be transported, the known standardized corner fittings are too large and too heavy. Scale-down of the corner fittings is not possible as the openings provided in the upper or, respectively, lower wall and in the side walls for receiving the usual hoisting elements, such as crane hooks, and usual coupling elements would become too small.
A disadvantage of the known corner fittings further resides in the fact that four different corner fittings are required for the total of eight corners of a container because of the disposition of the known openings and in view of the different design of the upper and lower corner fittings.
It is an object of the present invention to devise a corner fitting for small and medium-sized containers which is so shaped that identical fittings may be used for at least the four upper corners and identical fittings for the four lower corners of a container. As a further object, the fitting of this invention should have high stiffness and rigidity at low weight and small dimensions. Furthermore, the corner fitting of the present invention should be designed so as to permit easy and direct lateral coupling between the facing corners of adjacent containers in order to interconnect a group of smaller containers to form a unit which may be handled as one piece.